The People Behind Manhattan's Parties

If New York City’s social scene is one big stage, then who are the people behind the curtain directing show? They are the party impresarios who have carved out niches of their own—and who will occasionally step out into the spotlight. Here are three whose Rolodex you want to be in.Who: Mandie Erickson

“I really grew up in the industry and have been going to parties since I was two years old,” says New Yorker Mandie Erickson, daughter of Erickson Beamon jewelry co-founder Karen Erickson. “My mother used to take me to Studio 54!” Although Erickson’s guest lists differ depending on her clients, she thinks it’s important to have a balance of people at a party. “Part of that is to not be too heavy handed with the list,” she says. “Cash doesn’t have cachet, and vice versa.” Erickson goes on to describe a chaotic night at a London after-party for McQueen and Björk that one of her vodka clients was sponsoring: “The vodka got held up in customs and we had no budget for anything else, so after searching around London, we found some more. But when it arrived, it was black vodka, which made all the cocktails odd colors. We had to send out for more, and we were literally carrying in the cases of clear vodka as the guests arrived.” Erickson has also ventured into the world of design, and is producing a vintage-inspired line called Robin. Close friend Arden Wohl sings her praises: “She is incredibly motivated in her work and facilitates many different things for many fundamentally different types of people.”

The Belgian Congo–born Nadine Johnson, a self-described “party girl and dilettante,” moved to New York more than 25 years ago and stumbled into P.R. at the suggestion of her then husband, the New York Post’s Richard Johnson. In the 15 years since she started her business, she has presided over both intimate affairs and opulent bashes, ranging from events at Liberty Island (the Talk-magazine launch and the Imperia-vodka launch at which Duran Duran performed) to overseas parties (flying guests in from New York and London for Fendi’s show on the Great Wall of China and Larry Gagosian’s recent dinner in Moscow). “I think we have been a success because we don’t really have a specialty, and have had such diverse clients from the get-go,” she says. Johnson’s laid-back European approach to hosting and attending parties carries over into her personal life. Man-about-town Euan Rellie says, “Toby Young and I used to live down the street from Nadine on Perry Street. She would come to our parties, impossibly languid and chic, usually carrying her then six-year-old son. She would put him down asleep on a sofa somewhere and be the life and soul of the party, drinking and carousing, before eventually picking him up like a handbag and taking him back down the street to bed.”

Studying film and theater at college gave New York native Andrew Saffir the perfect background to launch a cinema venture after an 11-year career in fashion at Ralph Lauren. In 2005, with his friend Jeff Sharpe, who produced Proof, Saffir set out to do something different from the standard overblown premiere event—and populate it with people who wouldn’t typically go to one. The first party was a success, with everyone from David Bowie and Iman to Helena Christensen and Proof star Gwyneth Paltrow in attendance. Three-and-a-half years later, Saffir’s screenings and after-parties have become an almost weekly fixture on the social calendar. Recently the Cinema Society played host to Oscar contenders Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) and Sean Penn (Milk). “It’s fun when actors who don’t love the red-carpet relish the group that we put together and really dive into the evening,” Saffir says, recalling how Penn was among the last to leave the after-party. With longtime partner Daniel Benedict, Saffir himself is a regular on the party scene. “Andrew is the consummate host,” society fixture Bonnie Morrison says. “He retains an old-school quality that is lacking in so many of us, and I have never seen him be anything but polished, gracious, and correct.”